Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Homemade Soup Always Tastes The Best

It's easy to buy the soup that is on sale at the supermarket and simply stick it in the cabinet. Red labels line my shelf and promise exactly the same taste over-and-over again. Consistency trumps quality when convenience is the goal.

Wednesday afternoon, the folks at The NASCAR Media Group (NMG) used the SPEED network to remind us of one simple fact. Despite the ease of buying off the shelf, nothing tastes better than homemade soup.

Using all the ingredients left over from 2008, NMG took three hours to deliver just the kind of TV lunch that creates a great memory.

Like the tastes of the past that come to mind when homemade soup is on the menu, the NASCAR pictures and sound flashing by in the first episode of NASCAR 39/10 were just flat-out good for the soul.

These are tough times and watching the memories of Daytona and California allowed for three hours of relief from reality. Storylines jumped off the screen as images of the Shootout flashed by mixed with honest comments and familiar faces.

NMG pulled from all the 2008 NASCAR footage and allowed the story to wander from high-speed racing to the slow and steady pace of the late T. Taylor Warren as he captured the action. Announcers from both the TV and radio broadcasts combined to deliver a fascinating mix of commentary styles.

Inserting interview footage right in the middle of the action as it happened is a trademark of the glossy TV style of NMG. Seeing the calm face of Ryan Newman commenting on his Daytona 500 win seconds after watching his car cross the line is just tremendously effective.

The closing review of California was a reminder of the weather struggles for the series last season. Even with the kind words of SPEED's John Roberts as he talked about the history of the facility, the real world struggle of the racetrack was well chronicled. One look at the grandstands confirmed that issue.

As a lead-in to the season, this first episode set a very strong tone in terms of quality and satisfaction. The challenge for NMG is going to be keeping this honest and upfront approach as the season hits the speedbumps that both the COT and Goodyear experienced in the stretch run.

The second episode of NASCAR 39/10 airs on Thursday, January 8th from noon to 3PM Eastern Time. The rest of the series continues on Wednesdays and Thursdays in that same timeslot for four more weeks. 30 hours of NASCAR action is not a bad kick-off to the 2009 season.

For those expecting a warmed-up re-hash of the past, finding a nice mix of ingredients in NASCAR 39/10 will certainly serve to invite fans back again to see what's on the lunch menu for Thursday.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks again for taking the time to drop by.

Maybe Speed figured all the Nascar fans have been laid off their assembly line jobs and have the leasure time in the middle of the day to watch this program. What I shame that a program that is apparently so good was put at such an inconvenient time. But, they couldn't jeopardize those lifestyle show re runs, could they?

This was an excellent show! Nice mix of MRN & Fox announcing-some stuff from Nascar Confidential, but ALOT of focus on smaller, mostly ignored teams..ie, MWR, Sam Hornish at Penske, etc. Alot of new stuff I've never seen, which I know was taped & makes me waaay miss the wkly Nascar 360 etc. I enjoyed it very much!!

Just what the doctor ordered. It is unbelievable that they did not run this in prime time. I have only had time to watch the first hour but wow. It looks great and like an earlier poster said there was a lot of footage that I missed on the first go round. Tell everyone you know that likes Nascar not to miss the next episode. I set my DVR to record the season.

I setup to record the show and wasn't really going to watch it until later but I thought I would watch just a touch of it to see what it was like. I ended up watching the whole thing. I like it. As I watched I would find myself saying - I remember that now. It brought back some of the interesting things that happened in February. For those wondering if they may or may not watch it. Give it a few minutes of watch time and I bet you watch the whole show. It got me in the mood for this coming season.

I went to sign in and it didn't take the password I thought I used on this blog. Is there a way I can find out what my password was?

I forgot about watching it yesterday and will definitely have to turn it on today. I was looking at Speed's schedule yesterday and there is no reason that they could not show this in prime time with all of the re-runs of Wrecked and Pinks that they are showing and those were shows that I normally was not watching to start with, so why watch them now?

I'm home on my lunch hour this Thursday, and decided to catch some of this program, given the praise I read here yesterday. One thing I've noticed is that, without the crawler at the top of the screen giving the running order, it really point out how little information you get about any car not running in the top 10. I realize that this had been edited for this format, but the lack of information about the majority of cars on the track is especially frustrating to me. I think this really highlights how little information fans watching on television are given about the race as a whole, as opposed to covering only a select few drivers. Anyone else out there notice this?

What I noticed is how much the director is following the booth in these segments. I also notice that while I miss the running order ticker as the other poster mentioned, I see how much more I see without all the other BSPN BS!

Does anyone else find the bumper music oddly mournfull and not quite what you'd expect with a review show?

Enjoyed Day 1. Didn't realize when I watched the race that Larry Mac said early on that Newman had a good shot at winning. Just another reason to respect the guy. The T Taylor video was well meshed with the race video. Am saving day 2 for the weekend so I can give it my full attention.